The German Patent 10 2007 019 991 A1 discusses a method for avoiding a rear-end collision after the triggering of an automatic braking intervention by a vehicle safety system. In that case, the risk and the severity of a possible rear-end collision by a following vehicle is able to be reduced considerably if a model is used for the approach of a hypothetical vehicle. Within the framework of this model, a condition is ascertained for the release of the brake, and the brake is released at least to some extent in response to the occurrence of the condition. In the process, the instant for the release of the brake is determined, in doing which, particularly an initial distance and a theoretically conjectured behavior of a hypothetical following vehicle being assumed for this purpose. In this context, the release condition for the brake of the front vehicle may be a function of the assumed initial distance of the following vehicle from the front vehicle, the initial distance of the following vehicle being obtained, e.g., from the rule of thumb “half of the speed indicator” or an arbitrary multiple of the velocity of the host vehicle.